New Fiction November 2022

"To her own dismay, Lou is a natural model: tall, thin, captivatingly androgynous, and with a striking look. Out of nowhere, every agent in the Portland area wants to represent her. But Lou doesn't care for fashion, nor does she wish to be seen. Fresh out of high school, Lou's plan is to spend the summer taking photographs and hoping to catch the attention of Ivy, her close friend and secret crush. But when an afternoon hiking trip ends in a tragic accident, Lou finds herself lost, ridden with guilt, and unsure how to connect with her friends. Determined to find a purpose, Lou steps into the dizzying world of modeling auditions, commercial shoots, shockingly expensive haute couture, and runways in New York, Paris, and Milan. It's a whirlwind of learning how to walk, how to command her body and its movements, and how to manage her newfound fame. But in the dazzling flash of the camera and the thrill of seeing her face giant-size on billboards, Lou begins to worry that she's losing her identity--as a person, as an artist, and as a young woman still in love with the girl she left behind. A sharply observed and intimate story of grief and healing, doubt and self-acceptance set against the intense hyper-image-conscious industry of modeling and high fashion, Body Grammar shines with the anxieties of growing up and the often heartbreaking beauty of pursing love."-- Provided by publisher.

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"Meena Dave is a photojournalist and a nomad. She has no family, no permanent address, and no long-term attachments...But Meena's solitary life is turned upside down when she unexpectedly inherits an apartment in a Victorian brownstone in historic Back Bay, Boston. Though Meena's impulse is to sell it and keep moving...it's a chance for newfound friendships, community, and culture she never thought possible"-- Provided by publisher.

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Artist Giogione, with his career hanging in the balance, sets out to acquire a mysterious, otherworldly new pigment and secure his name in history, but instead finds himself caught up in a conspiracy stretching across Europe, involving a woman he's been commissioned to paint.

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A glamorous woman is murdered and her husband goes missing. But according to public records, neither of them exists. The only leads police have are several objects arranged around the woman's body, including a book called "How to Process a Murder" by Laughton Rees - a book that appears to have helped the killer forensically cleanse the crime scene. The presence of her book at this scene draws Laughton unwillingly into the high-profile investigation. Now, Laughton has to face her darkest fears and help catch a killer before this one is destroyed too.

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New York, 2061: The place called the Pleasure Academy is a living nightmare where abducted girls are trapped, trained for a life of abject service while their souls are slowly but surely destroyed. Dorian, a thirteen-year-old runaway who had been imprisoned there, might never have made it out if not for her fellow inmate Mina, who had hatched the escape plan. Mina was the more daring of the two, but they had been equally desperate. Unfortunately, they didn't get away fast enough. Now Dorian is injured, terrified, and wandering the streets of New York, and Mina lies dead near the waterfront while Lt. Eve Dallas looks over the scene. No matter what, she must keep her head clear, because she is desperate for justice and to take down those who prey on and torment the innocent.

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London, 1852. Genevieve Timmons has made her living posing as a spiritualist to swindle wealthy believers. A stranger makes her a peculiar offer: hold a séance to persuade his employer that his betrothed's spirit is at peace. Genevieve discovers Mr. Pemberton is anything but the heartbroken lover. Mr. Pemberton approaches Genevieve with an offer of his own: together, they will stage a séance so convincing it will coax the killer out of the shadows. Somerset and its residents are hiding many deadly secrets, and its ghosts could be all too real.

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After a tragic fire in 1922 that killed 19-year-old chambermaid, Grace Hadley, The Hotel Nantucket descended from a gilded age gem to a mediocre budget-friendly lodge to inevitably an abandoned eyesore - until it's purchased and renovated top to bottom by London billionaire, Xavier Darling. The hotel's staff face challenges in getting along with one another (and with the guests), in overcoming the hotel's bad reputation, and in surviving the (mostly) harmless shenanigans of Grace Hadley herself - who won't stop haunting the hotel until her murder is acknowledged.

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Amsterdam in the year 1705. It is Thea Brandt's eighteenth birthday. She is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms, but life at home is increasingly difficult. Her Aunt Nella believes the solution to all Thea's problems is to find her a husband who will guarantee her future. An unexpected invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball seems like a golden opportunity. But when Thea finds, on her doorstep, a parcel containing a miniature figure, it becomes clear that someone out there has another fate in mind for the family.

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Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own - realizing they've been marked for death. Now to get out alive they have to turn against their own organization - and they're about to teach the Board what it really means to be a woman - and a killer - of a certain age.

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In 1880s New York, on the run for a murder she didn't commit, grifter Una Kelly takes refuge in Bellevue Hospital nursing school where she slowly gains friendship and self-respect until she is forced to choose between her instinct for self-preservation and exposing her identity in order to save others.

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London, 1944/45. Kate Henderson's life is drastically interrupted when she wakes up to the sound of the air raid alarm. In the explosion, she loses her mother and aunt. Claire Giroux, a kind doctor and family friend, invites Kate to live with her as she recuperates. This arrangement works well for them until a few months later when Claire's husband comes home from the war. Within days the lives of both women are drastically changed, and events are set in motion, both in England and in Canada, that challenge Kate and Claire to their limits.

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Four years into her marriage, Jenna is blindsided when her husband asks for a divorce. With time on her hands and her life in flux, she agrees to accompany her eccentric grandmother, Evelyn, on a road trip to the seaside Massachusetts town where much of their family history was shaped. As the secrets and truths of Evelyn's past unfold, Jenna discovers a new side of her grandmother, and of herself, that she never knew existed - and learns that the possibilities for healing can come at the most unexpected times in a woman's life.

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"It's 1927 when Olive McCormick moves from Minneapolis to New York City determined to become a star in the Ziegfeld Follies. Extremely talented as a singer and dancer, it takes every bit of perseverance to finally make it on stage. And once she does, all the glamour and excitement is everything she imagined and more--even worth all the sacrifices she has had to make along the way. Then she meets Archie Carmichael. Handsome, wealthy--the only man she's ever met who seems to accept her modern ways--her independent nature and passion for success. But once she accepts his proposal of marriage he starts to change his tune, and Olive must decide if she is willing to reveal a devastating secret and sacrifice the life she loves for the man she loves."--Provided by publisher.

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Sabine DiPasquale wants nothing to do with her family's bakery business--much less with the Persian, a wildly popular doughnut that's caught the country's imagination and which is still handcrafted exclusively by her father. It's the early 1970s when an incident in the bakery prompts Sabine to withdraw from her family and vow to never set foot in the building again. Ten years later, her father's untimely death forces her from solitude to reckon with a family crisis of newsworthy proportions. As the baker's only child, she's expected to sell her inherited third of the business to her uncles. But when her father takes the highly prized secret of the Persian's mysterious pink icing to the grave, this sparks a media frenzy in the small city of Thunder Bay--and leads Sabine to some unexpected discoveries. Confronted with losing everything her father staked his life on, Sabine begins to unravel the twisted, deeply hidden truth about her family's rise to prominence, her father's business dealings and the pastry at the centre of it all.

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"The Wards are a working-class Newfoundland family on the cusp of upheaval. The children are becoming adults, the adults are growing old, and the new dog was probably stolen. When a sudden illness forces the Wards together, can they finally learn to be close-knit? This unsettling, at times hilarious novel explores the instability of nuclear families and the depths of dysfunction. Family is family--you don't get to choose. So what, exactly, do you get to choose?"-- Provided by publisher.

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Twenty-seven-year-old Isaac Funk is broke, drifting, and questioning his lonely existence on the East Coast. Having left his conservative hometown of Newfield, Manitoba full of piss and vinegar, Isaac's dreams of studying music and embracing queer culture in Halifax have gradually fizzled out. When his grandfather dies and leaves him a substantial inheritance, Isaac is pulled back to the Prairies for the first time in ten years. Finding his father, Abe, just as enigmatic and unreachable as always and his extended family more fragmented than ever, Isaac begins to wonder if there will ever be a place for him in Newfield. Is the prodigal son home for good, or is it time to cut and run once more?

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